ANZAK day was the 25th. The following was forwarded from a colleague:
"Having had our ANZAC Day commemorations and memorials, this Lady felt inspired to pay her own tribute to our brave ANZACs, including both of her Great Grandfathers. Sadly, neither of them made it home. To those who served then and to those who serve now, thank you. Here is her rendition of The Last Post."
#1
Do you know the name of the tune she is playing, B?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/27/2018 18:16
Comments ||
Top||
#2
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
#4
Since WWWI, at the Menin Gate in Ypres, the town has had buglers play the Last Post. Every night except when the bastards came again in 1940. And every night since VE Day. There are a lot of hits on youtube, mostly when one or another organization is visiting to pay their respects. Moving.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
04/27/2018 22:18
Comments ||
Top||
The wussification of America continues unabated.
[Yale Daily News] - If you walked into the Grace Hopper College courtyard last year, you may have seen a cat on a leash. Last fall you might have seen a dog; this semester, there are two of them scurrying around Hopper.
These are emotional support animals. While Yale College does not allow students to live with pets on campus, University Policy 4400 allows students to live with emotional support animals, also called assistance animals, "on a case-by-case basis in a reasonable accommodation for a documented disability."
Last year, there was one registered support animal on Yale’s campus, a kitten named Sawa. There are now 14 ‐ a number that Sarah Chang, associate director of the Resource Office on Disabilities, expects to rise.
[RedState] When the home, residence, and office of Michael Cohen, who is President Trump’s personal lawyer, was raided by FBI working for the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, all of his personal and legal records, along with his personal electronic devices, were confiscated and opened to search. There may have been a law enforcement reason for this. But I doubt it. This investigation is being carried out as a proxy to Mueller’s investigation, it follows the same M.O. as the pre-dawn raid on Paul Manafort’s home, and seems calculated to intimidate, embarrass, and to gain access to records that would be off limits if the government tried to obtain them via subpoena. If you pay attention, we are already learning about Cohen’s activities via leaks that can only have one source.
One of the strategies the investigators have been using is painting Cohen as a fake lawyer, as a guy with a law degree but who only has one actual client, and, therefore his legally protected records could easily be identified by a prosecution appointed "taint team." The taint here is not what you’d find at urbandictionary.com nor does it do what you might imagine such a team to do. The idea is that you get prosecutors who aren’t involved in the case (yeah, I laughed at that, too) and they examine the privileged documents and only let the REAL prosecutors see things that are relevant. I don’t know if newspaper reporters fall in category of people authorized to see stuff, but it is beginning to look that way.
A New York federal judge says she is appointing a former Manhattan federal judge to help determine what materials seized in raids on the home and office of President Donald Trump’s private attorney are protected by attorney-client privilege.
Judge Kimba Wood said Thursday at a hearing that Barbara Jones has the right amount of experience to handle the study of materials seized in the April 9 raids that targeted attorney Michael Cohen.
Jones was a federal judge in New York for 17 years before leaving for private practice five years ago. Jones was nominated to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by President Bill Clinton on the recommendation of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Or - The One Where Steny Hoyer Gets His Tony Soprano On.
[Zero Hedge] - In the latest striking example of how the Democratic Party resorts to cronyism (and perhaps corruption) to ensure that its favored candidates beat back progressive challengers in local races, a candidate for Colorado's 6th Congressional District has leaked a recording of a conversation with Minority Leader Steny Hoyer to The Intercept which published it overnight. In it, Hoyer can be heard essentially lecturing the candidate about why he should step aside and let the Democratic Party bosses - who of course have a better idea about which candidate will prevail over a popular Republican in the general election - continue pulling the strings.
The candidate, Levi Tillemann, is hardly a party outsider. Tillemann had grandparents on both sides of his family who were elected Democratic representatives, and his family is essentially Democratic Party royalty.
Still, the party's campaign arm - the notorious Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (better known as the DCCC, or D-trip) - refused to provide Tillemann with access to party campaign data or any of the other resources he requested. No data for you!
[Bus Insider] A bearded US Army soldier who worships Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is being permitted to keep his beard as part of the military's effort to be more religiously accommodating.
In 2017, the Army decided to allow soldiers to wear a turban, beard or hijab for religious reasons. Initially, religious accommodation of facial hair in the Army seemed to be directed at Sikh service members (beards are a religious requirement for male Sikhs).
Now, however, it appears this new policy also permits adherents of the Norse pagan faith, also known as heathens, to keep their beards. Unlike Sikhs, Norse pagans are not required to wear beards as part of their faith, but facial hair is apparently encouraged.
A memo written by commander Col. Curtis Shroedero to a 795th Military Police Battalion soldier who reportedly made the request stated, "I grant your accommodation, subject to the standards and limitations described below."
#5
NBC Kit? What about a breathing mask for firefighting? More or less required for sea duty. Or a Momsen Lung if on submarine duty -- if you would like to leave the option open of escaping a downed sub.
...except that Trump says no such thing.
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Thursday evening that the U.S. consider removing support for certain nations if they lobbied against a joint bid by the U.S., Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 World Cup.
"The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup," the president wrote on Twitter. "It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?" He did not single out any countries by name. "You help us & we'll help you." A fairly simple concept, isn't it?
Recent news reports have said the joint North American bid is in peril because of Trump’s rhetoric and a reluctance to grant the U.S. something at a time when the president has supported a travel ban against mostly Muslim countries and reportedly called unspecified African states "shithole countries." (Trump has denied using that specific language, but his account has been disputed by lawmakers who were present at the meeting where the alleged utterance occurred.) Nope, there's no such thing as liberal media bias!
[Hot Air] The expulsion of sixty Russians with diplomatic cover after the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal may have been more targeted than first thought. CNN reports that the expelled included Russian agents who had tracked defectors and others with knowledge of Vladimir Putin’s regime. After the spectacular attack on Skripal, US intelligence agencies raised an alarm over what might come next here at home without a disruption to those efforts:
Among the dozens of Russian diplomats the US expelled last month were suspected spies who US law enforcement and intelligence officials believe were tracking Russian defectors and their families who had resettled in the US, officials briefed on the matter tell CNN.
In at least one instance, suspected Russian spies were believed to be casing someone who was part of a CIA program that provided new identities to protect resettled Russians, the officials said.
That episode and other US intelligence raised concerns that the Russians were preparing to target Russian émigrés in the US labeled by the Kremlin as traitors or enemies, law enforcement and intelligence officials said.
I’ll bet it did, but why did it take so long? The Brits may have kept it on the down-low for diplomatic and geopolitical reasons, but Russian emigrés have been dropping in the UK under suspicious circumstances for years. The lack of official response appears to have emboldened Moscow into removing all subtlety and nuance from these assassinations, leaving evidence that makes sure all defectors and turncoats understand the message: We will get you sooner or later.
#1
Anyone coming in and out of an embassy should be suspected of nefarious activity. The monitoring of such people is the task of the FBI. That is of course, if the FBI is doing their job and not conducting politically motivated monitoring of presidential candidates.
Diplomatic license plates makes the task a bit easier.
This type of activity has been going on for decades. The difference between "political defectors" and Russian intelligence sources warrants close monitoring as well. They could just be headed to a favorite cafe for a private meeting.
[Guardian] We’re doomed," says Mayer Hillman with such a beaming smile that it takes a moment for the words to sink in. "The outcome is death, and it’s the end of most life on the planet because we’re so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. There are no means of reversing the process which is melting the polar ice caps. And very few appear to be prepared to say so."
Hillman, an 86-year-old social scientist and senior fellow emeritus of the Policy Studies Institute, does say so. His bleak forecast of the consequence of runaway climate change, he says without fanfare, is his "last will and testament". His last intervention in public life. "I’m not going to write anymore because there’s nothing more that can be said," he says when I first hear him speak to a stunned audience at the University of East Anglia late last year.
From Malthus to the Millennium Bug, apocalyptic thinking has a poor track record. But when it issues from Hillman, it may be worth paying attention. Over nearly 60 years, his research has used factual data to challenge policymakers’ conventional wisdom. In 1972, he criticised out-of-town shopping centres more than 20 years before the government changed planning rules to stop their spread. In 1980, he recommended halting the closure of branch line railways ‐ only now are some closed lines reopening. In 1984, he proposed energy ratings for houses ‐ finally adopted as government policy in 2007. And, more than 40 years ago, he presciently challenged society’s pursuit of economic growth.
When we meet at his converted coach house in London, his classic Dawes racer still parked hopefully in the hallway (a stroke and a triple heart bypass mean he is ‐ currently ‐ forbidden from cycling), Hillman is anxious we are not side-tracked by his best-known research, which challenged the supremacy of the car.
#6
I've long wondered why super-lefty California has (1) not stopped the crazy home building rates (2) if building must continue why not enforce stricter standards for insulation and solar on the roofs.
It's almost as if they only pay lip service to the environment on one hand and then cripple the economy to save the endangered smelt on the other.
Just a bit unfair to Malthus - he formulated theories according to the best data available at the time. The peace of shit cited in the current article is nothing like Malthus - and not just because it doesn't have 1% of Malthus' ability as a scientist.
#12
He's welcome to self-darwinate like the NYC Lawyer who burned himself to death. Strike a blow to the man, cause dousing yourself with gas and lighting a match is sure to show you mean /business/.
#13
Scratch the surface of a Modern Era Malthusian and you always seem to find a Totalitarianist anxious to rule 'You' (the common folk) for the Common Good Faceless Elite Class.
Back in the late 70's a exposure to SF and World Events clued me in to a common theme where a series of bogeymen: Overpopulation, Pollution, 'Peak [insert Resource here]'. and 'Global Freezing/Warming' all needed a World Government to fix. Experts, "Top Men In The Field", would save the unwashed from Doom!", or so they opined.
#14
cause dousing yourself with gas and lighting a match is sure to show you mean business//
Gas and matches are easy to come by. The action mentioned just shows SOMEBODY meant business, not necessarily the deceased.
#16
Over nearly 60 years, his research has used factual data to challenge policymakers’ conventional wisdom. In 1972, he criticised out-of-town shopping centres more than 20 years before the government changed planning rules to stop their spread. In 1980, he recommended halting the closure of branch line railways ‐ only now are some closed lines reopening. In 1984, he proposed energy ratings for houses ‐ finally adopted as government policy in 2007. And, more than 40 years ago, he presciently challenged society’s pursuit of economic growth.
He's a totalitarian control freak. A Neo-Communist who would push everyone into concrete gulag apartment buildings lit by an IED bulb with no heat or hot water. "Wear a jacket!". Perhaps if I make a visit to Londonistan I can take a compostible shit on his grave and punch a NHS Doctor and Judge.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2018 18:23
Comments ||
Top||
#17
Is there a term for killing someone and making it look like suicide?
People have been leaving high-tax states for a while now, despite 'academics' (and presumably not real economists) quoted in this column stating otherwise. Looks like Trump poured some gas on this fire!
[CNBC] - Conservative economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore are predicting a new mass exodus of wealth from New York and California because of the new tax law. But academics who have studied taxes and migration call the forecast "pure nonsense." What happens if the stock market corrects 10% or more? Have the 'academics' considered that angle?
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal headlined "So Long, California. Sayonara, New York," Laffer and Moore (who have both advised President Donald Trump) say the new tax bill will cause a net 800,000 people to move out of California and New York over the next three years. Please spread the migration out a bit. They don't all have to bring their leftest politics to Georgia.
The tax changes limit the deduction of state and local taxes to $10,000, so many high-earning taxpayers in high-tax states will actually face a tax increase under the new tax code. Not if they move to TX or FL - at least they won't be paying state income tax, which will mean more after-tax take-home pay.
#2
I forgot to mention - the 'academics' in this article attempt to change the subject by saying 'wealthy & super-wealthy' taxpayers aren't going to leave NY and CA, when it is clear Laffer & Moore are talking about 'people' in general.
[Wash Times] Former CIA Director John Brennan says he has a right to imply that Russian President Vladimir Putin has blackmail material on President Trump.
"Well, I’m an ordinary civilian now," Mr. Brennan told NPR. "I’m a private citizen, and I’m speaking out."
"I am a nonpartisan," Mr. Brennan added.
Mr. Brennan had been asked if "it is responsible" for a recent CIA director to issue such speculation.
Mr. Brennan, a trusted aide to President Barack Obama, has emerged as an MSNBC analyst and one of Mr. Trump’s most strident critics. He worked behind the scenes during the campaign to expose allegations in the Democratic Party-financed Christopher Steele dossier.
Perhaps his most damaging criticism is his implication that the Kremlin has dirt on Mr. Trump and Mr. Trump knows it. His suspicions are fueled, he says, by Mr. Trump’s praise of hardliner Mr. Putin.
Total Communist - Proven by his failed Lie-detector test! Finally had to admit he voted for Communist Party! Why elese would Obama hire him. Just another czar! Putin knows you are a looser, CONVENIENT IDIOT! Go home and Read your Marx manifesto Brennan you scumbag!
Reply
Share
17 Likes
My blood boils every time I see Brennan in the news. Oh, and Clapper; don't get me started on that prevaricator. 4 pinocchios is too kind for them.
Reply
Share
12 Likes
Brennan & Clapper both belong in jail already! Clapper clearly lied under oath to Congress in 2013.
Brennan is "speaking out" only to create a false narrative. He should be in jail for his role in passing the fake "dossier"
Both have leaked to the media communications and security briefings with the president.
Reply
Share
1 Like
#8
His suspicions are fueled, he says, by Mr. Trump’s praise of hardliner Mr. Putin.
That's it? That's all you got, Johnny? I praised Putin's little talk with Megyn Kelly the other day, but I ain't been colluding with nobody!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/27/2018 14:12
Comments ||
Top||
#9
I've heard that mares whinny and bolt at his approach, so there's all we need to jail Brennan. However, I'm not a repressive prog, so I wasn't able to say all that with a straight face. Sorry!
[Freebeacon] A senior U.S. counterintelligence official recently said publicly what many officials and experts have been warning privately for years: China is using its large student population in the United States to spy.
Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, a DNI agency, said recently that China poses a broad-ranging foreign intelligence threat that includes the use of academics, students, cyber espionage, and human agents to steal secrets from the government and private sectors.
"I look at the China threat from a counterintelligence perspective as a whole-of-government threat by China against us," Mr. Evanina told a conference last week at The Aspen Institute.
"We allow 350,000 or so Chinese students here every year," he said. "That's a lot. We have a very liberal visa policy for them. Ninety-nine point nine percent of those students are here legitimately and doing great research and helping the global economy. But it is a tool that is used by the Chinese government to facilitate nefarious activity here in the U.S."
What took ya so long, Tommy?
[Boston Herald] - NEW YORK ‐ A woman who worked as a war correspondent for NBC News said Tom Brokaw groped her, twice tried to forcibly kiss her and made inappropriate overtures attempting to have an affair, according to two reports published Thursday.
Linda Vester told Variety and the Washington Post that the misbehavior from the longtime news anchor at the network took place in NBC offices in Denver and New York in the 1990s, when she was in her 20s. Variety reports that Vester, now 52, showed them journals from the time that corroborated the story.
Brokaw, who is 78 and has been married since 1962, denied doing anything inappropriate.
[Townhall] Pro-Trump conservative media personalities Diamond and Silk, sisters whose real names are Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, testified before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday on the topic of bias against conservatives by companies like Facebook, in a hearing that frequently went off the rails. The sisters defended their claims that they were censored by the tech giant, often in very strong terms.
They said that if Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was censoring liberals, "Democrats would be in the streets right now marching and calling him all types of racist."
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) implied the sisters were making a lot of money off of Facebook, a characterization they strongly denied.
"You ladies are very impressive to me," Rep. Johnson said, "you have taken something and moved forward with it, exercising your First Amendment rights, and you've made a ton of money off Facebook, is that correct?
"Absolutely not," Hardaway replied angrily, "Facebook censored us for six months."
[Pirates Cove] Don’t misunderstand, I support the use and expansion of alternatives, and definitely more than lots of Warmists/enviroweenies, since they support them in theory, but, there’s always some reason they do not support when being deployed. But, they seem to be driving up the price of energy, as Michael Shellenberger points out.
Over the last year, the media have published story after story after storyabout the declining price of solar panels and wind turbines.
People who read these stories are understandably left with the impression that the more solar and wind energy we produce, the lower electricity prices will become.
And yet that’s not what’s happening. In fact, it’s the opposite.
Between 2009 and 2017, the price of solar panels per watt declined by 75 percent while the price of wind turbines per watt declined by 50 percent.
And yet ‐ during the same period ‐ the price of electricity in places that deployed significant quantities of renewables increased dramatically.
Shellenberger goes through the facts and figures, and I’ll leave that up to you to read it all. But, it’s not from the price of nuclear, coal, natural gas, and other tried and true, reliable energy sources rising. Nor the closure of nuclear plants. So, why?
#2
The alternative energy people flat-out lie about the ability of solar and wind to provide baseline power and demand that oil and gas and coal fill in the gaps at the same price as if they were used to provide baseline power, which they can't, because for them providing intermittent power is much more expensive on a capital basis. Thus it both becomes more expensive and the firms doing it are financially strapped. They have to keep coal plants online in Pennsylvania to keep everyone from freezing to death in New England during the winter when there are low wind and sun generation periods but the amortization and duty cycle is all screwed up. The greenies won't say this but they see that as a feature, because they want to screw actual working people out of jobs. They're more or less the ideological descendants of the neo-confucians who screwed up China so bad they spent nearly a millenium overrun by either Europeans, Japanese, or homeless people Mongolian Nomads from Central Asia.
#3
"The alternative energy people flat-out lie" is all that's needed to be said!
It's debatable whether green wind totems will make enough energy to replace that used to construct and place it. Let alone work out with the time value of money costed into it.
#6
The cost of Chinese tech (and it's all chinese tech) used in energy producing devices keeps rising although cost of labor and raw material production is fixed.
#7
Solar and wind might be efficient enough to take ones house off the grid with a bit to spare, the solar pavement I saw might be something to consider, but wind farms powering everything is just daft.
#8
Take care of your basic A/C energy needs through creative architecture and the next hurdle is the common refrigerator/freezer. Fix those and the rest is easyeasier workable.
Want power tools, welll... Get a waterwheel?
#9
They have to keep coal plants online in Pennsylvania to keep everyone from freezing to death in New England during the winter because the stupid New England NIMBYists refuse to have natural gas pipelines built in their precious territory from the gas-abundant states west of them.
[Jerusalem Post] Jordanian and US military personnel marked the final day of the annual Eager Lion military exercise on Thursday, which focused on irregular warfare and promoted military relationships.
The annual exercise kicked off in Jordan on April 14 and focuses on irregular warfare, terrorism and national security threats.
Military personnel from the United States and Jordan underwent a chemical, biological and nuclear attack response training at a center in the Jordanian town of Zarqa, north of the capital Amman on Sunday.
The chemical attack response training comes weeks after a suspected poison gas attack in Syria that sparked a US-led retaliatory strike.
[NR] Don’t discount the man’s ability to schmooze. The stale, clichéd conceptions of Donald Trump held by both Left and Right ‐ a man either utterly useless or only rigidly, transactionally tolerable ‐ conceal the fact that the president does possess redeeming talents that are uniquely his, and deserve praise on their own merit. One is personal friendliness and charm, particularly in smaller settings.
During the campaign, I remember a conservative pundit asking his audience to imagine meeting either Hillary or Trump, and then imagine which candidate would appear to enjoy the experience more. The answer went without saying. Trump is a man who backslaps, who laughs, who makes silly jokes (yes, even self-deprecating ones), engages in amusing small talk, and tells fun stories. It’s easy to lose sight of that these days, as most of the president’s persona is now presented to us in the form of rambling, off-the-cuff press conferences or meandering braggadocio at campaign-style rallies, neither of which is particularly compelling.
Partisanship and memories of the Access Hollywood tape have similarly soured some to the point where it’s impossible to imagine anyone enjoying his presence. Yet one does not become a global celebrity of several decades’ standing without developing some skill at schmoozing, disarming, and seducing at the individual level, and this is not worth nothing in the world of politics.
[NR] The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday shielding Special Counsel Robert Mueller from potential dismissal.
The bill, which passed 14‐7 with the support of all the panel’s Democrats and four Republicans, codifies Department of Justice regulations that limit the reasons a special counsel can be fired, requires Congress be given advanced notice of an impending firing, and gives a terminated special counsel the chance to appeal their firing in court.
The measure has little chance of going to the Senate floor for a vote as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly indicated he doesn’t believe it is necessary.
The committee chairman, Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), made a last minute change to the bill Wednesday night to ensure its passage, removing a provision that would require the special counsel to notify congressional leadership "if there is any change made to the specific nature or scope" of their investigation. Democrats on the panel were reportedly concerned that the language would be used to provide Republicans an advanced opportunity to rebut forthcoming findings in the press.
"It is possible the bill goes too far," Grassley said at a committee meeting Thursday. "But at the very least, if my amendment is adopted, it will require the executive branch to give more information to Congress, and that will allow Congress to do its job more effectively and to safeguard the interests of the American people."
Rank-and-file Democrats continue to emphasize the importance of the legislation in light of Trump’s continued public attacks on Mueller’s investigation, while Republicans outside of the committee have been hesitant to voice their support, though many have publicly cautioned Trump against firing Mueller.
#1
I recall a bill passed by Congress, it prohibited President Andrew Johnson from firing any member of his (disloyal) Cabinet. He fired one. This was the basis of the subsequent impeachment proceedings. Can you say Deep State boys and girls. Make your agents above the law and accountability.
#3
I've been astounded by the Mueller whateveryoucallit and the lack of accomplishing anything in over a year. He has traveled all over the world looking for leads. It almost makes me think that maybe it was an intended sham. A sop for the left to chew on and think important things were being done whereas little was being done.
#5
Indict all of Mueller's underlings for "Collusion to Commit [fill in the blank]", do a pre-dawn raid on them, and then leave Mueller to twist in the breeze. If Mueller wants to play Gestapo then oblige him.
#9
As said above, the guy has examined EVERYTHING.
As a contrarian I wonder if the empty bucket isn't really full, and this shield is the final ploy in a long shell game.
I think a role as the President's special investigator is pending.
[MRC] Former FBI Director and new author James Comey has spent the past 12 days on his book tour promoting A Higher Loyalty, the supposed greatness of Comey himself and the lack thereof on the part of President Trump.
However, no prior interview compared to his Thursday hit on the Fox News Channel’s Special Report as host Bret Baier offered a masterfully tough tour de force akin to interviews of yesteryear by the late Tim Russert.
The interview got a late start with Baier telling viewers in a "Fox News Alert" at the top of the program that Comey was "in traffic" and that he would be kept updated with Comey’s whereabouts. Eventually, Comey arrived at the Fox News D.C. bureau near Union Station and the interview started at the 6:15 p.m. Eastern mark.
The questioning began with the Hillary Clinton e-mail probe and if it was "true that you and your FBI colleagues made the decision to exonerate Secretary Clinton well before she was interviewed."
Comey denied that despite having written a memo exonerating her and emphasized that it’s crucial for investigators to have an idea of where a probe that ended up lasting almost a year.
It was soon after that Baier showed his mettle, telling Comey that "you already knew that she had been telling, whatever you want to say, lies, mistruths about this investigation of what ‐ and how she handled those emails" and played a clip of Comey stating just that in congressional testimony in July 2016.
Here’s more of that exchange, including a question about why Cheryl Mills was allowed to sit in on Clinton’s FBI interview (as always, click "expand" for more):
[NYP] It might sound like something that belongs in an episode of HBO’s "Silicon Valley," which spoofs the eccentricities of US start-up culture, but this is real.
Start-up tech companies in China have come up with an unusual way to keep their employees ‐ namely coders, programmers and engineers ‐ happy and relaxed. Officially they’re called "programmer motivators" but they sound more like flirtatious cheerleaders.
Their role is to keep the other, predominantly male employees of the business content by chatting them up and looking after them.
According to The New York Times, the unusual job is proliferating in a society that largely adheres to gender stereotypes and believes that male programmers are "zhai," or nerds who have no social lives ‐ and an attentive and attractive woman is supposed to help that.
To bag the position, you need to be attractive and good at socializing and putting men at ease. And massages, you need to be able to give a good massage apparently.
They’re not exactly comfort women, but at the risk of hyperbole, there’s a similar unseemliness to the idea. Just imagine the outrage, the blood-boiling backlash if such a position was advertised in the West.
[Intercept] HEADING INTO THE 2018 midterms, with Democrats hoping to take back the House of Representatives and even make a run at the Senate, the party has spent more than $2 million worth of campaign resources on payments to Hillary Clinton’s new group, Onward Together, according to Federal Election Commission filings and interviews with people familiar with the payments.
The Democratic National Committee is paying $1.65 million for access to the email list, voter data, and software produced by Hillary for America during the 2016 presidential campaign, Xochitl Hinojosa, a spokesperson for the DNC, told The Intercept. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has paid more than $700,000 to rent the same email list.
Clinton is legally entitled to rent her list to the party, rather than hand it over as a gift, but in 2015, Barack Obama gave his email list, valued at $1,942,640, to the DNC as an in-kind contribution. In 2013 and 2014, OFA had similarly made in-kind contributions exceeding $3.4 million for uses of the list that cycle.
Obama’s list was at one point considered to be the most valuable in politics and raised more than twice as much money for the 2012 Obama campaign as Clinton’s did for hers in 2016. The DNC agreement with the Clinton campaign calls on the debt-ridden organization to fork the money over to an entity of Clinton’s choosing, which wound up being Onward Together, the operation she formed after her campaign ceased to exist.
[BBC] Californian prosecutors say genealogy websites played a key role in tracking down a man accused of being a notorious serial killer.
Joseph DeAngelo is suspected of being the so-called Golden State Killer, blamed for a spate of murders and rapes in the 1970s and 1980s.
DNA linked the crimes but police had struggled to identify the attacker.
Investigators revealed the search was narrowed with genetic information from websites used to trace family ancestry.
Mr DeAngelo, who was arrested on Tuesday, has initially been charged with eight counts of murder. He is due to make his first court appearance in Sacramento later on Friday.
Steve Grippi, chief deputy district attorney for Sacramento County, said detectives had compared the DNA to information on genealogical website databases and narrowed the search down to several families.
They then narrowed the search further by using the age profile of the killer.
#2
I discussed this issue with a friend of mine on the phone. I've known him for 13 years. He confessed that he does not know his paternal grandfather - news to me! His own father was adopted at birth. I told him he might be able to ID his paternal grandfather using his personal DNA test results from 5 years ago, combined with the results of his sister. News to him!
#3
Being doing genealogy for over 20 years. I am still surprised that family members don't discuss their own family trees among themselves and when they get their DNA tested, often do not tell their own relatives. There are mathematical tools that can be applied to a group of DNA tests that may greatly clarify family trees.
#4
Some people (Shaun King, Rachel "Blackface" Dolezal, our "high cheekbones Fauxcahontas" Elizabeth Warren, et al ) are noticeably unenthusiastic to provide DNA
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2018 18:45
Comments ||
Top||
#5
I participate in gedmatch.com, also. I just now found this on their website:
April 27, 2018 We understand that the GEDmatch database was used to help identify the Golden State Killer. Although we were not approached by law enforcement or anyone else about this case or about the DNA, it has always been GEDmatch's policy to inform users that the database could be used for other uses, as set forth in the Site Policy ( linked to the login page and https://www.gedmatch.com/policy.php). While the database was created for genealogical research, it is important that GEDmatch participants understand the possible uses of their DNA, including identification of relatives that have committed crimes or were victims of crimes. If you are concerned about non-genealogical uses of your DNA, you should not upload your DNA to the database and/or you should remove DNA that has already been uploaded.
[Free Beacon] Secretary of Defense James Mattis explained Thursday why he directed a strike that reportedly killed hundreds of Russian mercenaries in Syria back in February.
Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. has a deconfliction line with Russia to ensure that the two countries can communicate in order to avoid direct conflict with one another in Syria. He said that a group of "irregular forces" were in conflict with U.S. forces, and once it was ascertained that those forces were not Russian regulars, Mattis directed a counterattack.
"The Russian high command in Syria assured us it was not their people, and my direction to the chairman was for the force, then, to be annihilated," Mattis said. "And it was."
The force comprised hundreds of Russian mercenaries, which then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo attested to when he said the U.S. killed "a couple hundred Russians." On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Pompeo to be President Donald Trump’s secretary of state.
Asked about whether the Russian Federation was harassing U.S. forces in Syria, Mattis stopped short of blaming Russia for particular battlefield actions.
"I cannot target the responsibility to the Russians right now," he said. "It is a crowded battlefield; it’s also got Iranians there and, of course, the regime forces as well."
He touted the sanctions the Trump administration has imposed on specific Russians.
"You notice as we go forward, we’ve so far sanctioned 189 individuals in Russia," he said.
"Economic sanctions are going to be obviously looked at for future violations as well," Mattis added. "So we have an asymmetric way, an indirect way, of going after them and making them pay."
...the Muslim convert who for years had a website he described as a jihadist news service for his brothers worldwide, which no doubt had something to do with the fact that Homeland and the FBI investigated him for ties to ISIS...
57, entered his plea to one count of making a false statement to law enforcement. Under his agreement, both he and federal prosecutors have agreed to ask a judge to sentence him to between 10 and 16 months in federal prison.
Should Chief U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan accept the recommended guidelines, she can sentence Pino to prison, house arrest or probation, or a combination of the three.
Gaughan will sentence Pino on Aug. 23. She released him on $25,000 unsecured bond and ordered him to surrender his passport.
Pino has worked at Kent State since 1992 and specializes in Latin History and the Third World. The tenured professor has a history of making controversial statements in line with his Muslim faith and his anti-Israel views.
[IsraelTimes] At Gazoo funeral, Paleostinian terror group leader Haniyeh vows to 'sever the hand' that assassinated Fadi al-Batsh
Thousands of Paleostinians joined a mass funeral on Thursday for a Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", rocket and drone expert who was bumped off in Malaysia last week.
[AlMasdar] Russian continues to send more arms, ammunition and military equipment to Syria to help the Syrian forces defeat the terrorist group across the war-torn country.
Recently, the Kyzyl-60: a Russian cargo vessel was seen crossing the Mediterranean-bound Bosphorus en route to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia keeps its naval base.
According to sources, the vessel is laden with weapons, ammunition and desert camouflage URAL 4320 trucks.
The kind of cargo might indicate that Russia is planning a new offensive alongside the Syrian Army in the Syrian Desert.
[Dawn] A Taliban ...Arabic for students... attack on an Afghan army security post in the country’s northern Kunduz province has killed at least seven soldiers, a defence front man said on Thursday.
Mohammad Radmanish, the deputy front man for the Ministry of Defence, said the attack took place on Wednesday night in the remote Dashti Archi district in Kunduz.
A gunbattle lasted several hours and along with the seven killed, one soldier was maimed, Radmanish said. He added that 15 Taliban fighters were also killed and 13 were maimed.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... a local hospital chief, Rahimbakesh Danish Karimi, gave a higher casualty toll for the military, saying bodies of 13 soldiers and nine maimed in the attack were brought to his hospital in Thakhar province, which is the closest medical facility to the attack site.
The conflicting casualty reports could not immediately be reconciled as is common in the aftermath of such attacks. No krazed killer group has grabbed credit for the attack but the officials blamed the Taliban.
Earlier on Thursday, the Taliban ambushed an Afghan government convoy in the country’s eastern province of Pashtun-infested Logar, killing the deputy provincial governor and his two bodyguards, an official said.
The ambush on Kamaruddin Shekeib’s convoy also seriously maimed Shekeib’s front man, said Mohammad Naser Ghyrat, the Pashtun-infested Logar provincial council chief.
The Taliban control large swaths of Pashtun-infested Logar, and despite the establishment of dozens of outposts of Afghan cops along the main road running through the province, krazed killer attacks are frequent. Zabihullah Mujahid, front man for the Taliban, grabbed credit for that attack in a statement sent to the media.
[AlMasdar] Clashes in multiple fronts of north-west Hama countryside re-erupted after jihadi rebels announced a new offensive against the Syrian forces, duplicating a failed attack last month.
The attack was initiated with rebel groups shelling Army positions and checkpoints in Mughayr, Kernaz and Hamamiyat towns as well as south of Kafr Nabudeh town using artillery and homegrown rockets. No casualties reported.
The Syrian Army responded with targeting jihadists’ headquarters and supply routes with heavy MLRs and artillery strikes. The rebel bastions of Kafr Zita, Lataminah and Habit were strongly hit.
Recently, the Russian fighter jets have been overwhelmingly active in the area with hundreds of Arclight Arclight airstrikes that pummeled positions for the ultraconservative groups.
The attack, known beforehand by the Syrian government, comes nearly six weeks after the same groups waged a failed assault in the same area. Kernaz, the only town seized by holy warriors during the offensive, was recaptured by the Syrian forces in less than 24 hours.
[Ynet] Israel's envoy to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... said on Thursday that Iran had recruited at least 80,000 Shiite fighters which it was training at a base just over five miles from Damascus.
Holding up a map, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Security Council that Iran had set up a training base just over five miles from Damascus.
"What you can see here is Iran's central induction and recruitment centre in Syria. There are over 80,000 Shia turbans in Syria under Iranian control. It is at this base, just over five miles from Damascus, where they are trained to commit acts of terror in Syria and across the region," Danon said.
#1
80,000 guys take up a lot of room. At, say, three pounds of food per day, that's 240,000 pounds of food, or 120 tons. Every day. You can't forage among the locals at that rate for long, even if you have the buttheads spread out in locations with, say, 1000 guys. Logistics are going to be difficult or, if not, Obama's millions bought a lot of trucks.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
04/27/2018 8:33
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Ample logistical food supply available from the "fields of grain" and refining/milling capacity of metropolitan Damascus, Bekaa Valley, and Golan Heights. Should last a least... a couple hours
At least a full stomach won't make them sleepy, Infidel!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2018 19:07
Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Terror group backs workshops teaching activists what isn't permitted, while leaders frame themselves as followers of Mandela, Gandhi; Israel says protests are cover for terrorism
Reveling in its success in winning the attention of the international community with the latest mass border protests, Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", claims to be embracing new, nonviolent tactics for breaking the Israeli security blockade on the Gazoo Strip.
The Paleostinian terror group that rules Gazoo says it considers the weekly "March of Return" rallies ‐ in which protesters have burned tires, hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at Israeli troops, flown flaming kites over the border and attempted to sabotage the security fence ‐ a pivot toward nonviolence. Israel says Hamas uses the marches ‐ which the terror group’s leaders have publicly declared are intended to erase the border ad liberate Paleostine ‐ as cover for terrorist attacks.
Continued on Page 49
[True Pundit] The inner circle of James Comey and Andrew McCabe on the 7th Floor of FBI HQ has flipped, according to high level Justice Department officials.
The once-loyal cabal of FBI brass and leaders who reigned during the FBI tenures of Comey and McCabe have been testifying against their former bosses, DOJ sources confirm.
For now at least that cooperation involves cooperation with the Inspector General. Soon, that would likely extend to grand juries, according to sources.
In law enforcement circles, these players are referred to as Rats, cops who implicate other cops to save their jobs and pensions. So who is ratting on Comey and McCabe and cooperating with the proceedings against each?
FBI Counterintelligence Head Bill Priestap is the biggest fish, federal law enforcement sources said. And he is a key player here. His cooperation spells trouble for McCabe and likely Comey too.
"Last guy I would have thought would cooperate is cooperating," one high-ranking Justice official said about Priestap. "He knows about everything the IG is looking at because he was involved in it all."
The Justice official called Priestap’s cooperation "devastating" especially to McCabe. The source would not elaborate.
McCabe realized this when he banked over $500K on a GoFundMe campaign for upcoming legal fees.
Priestap was Peter Strzok’s boss and Priestap answered directly to McCabe.
Strzok is now cooperating with the Inspector General as well as Lisa Page, the FBI lawyer and former right-hand associate of McCabe. She too is talking along with Strzok, sources confirm.
It would appear that the FBI’s house ‐ built by Comey and McCabe ‐ is coming down, one brick at a time. But flipping Priestap takes out a cornerstone, no doubt.
#1
The FBI egg may, I say again 'may' be beginning to crack but there are numerous other quite interesting facets.
Notice the general absence in any of these discussions regarding foreign signals collection and of one particularly key US Gov't, intelligence community figure ?
Yes, that would be the Director National Security Agency (DIRNSA), Admiral Mike Rogers. I have suspected for some time that he holds the keys to the Trump Towers communications monitoring. I'll go one step further and suggest that it was NOT done by US Intelligence (USI) but rather UK's GCHQ. They really are some of the best in the business, and Trump Towers is only a 5 minute walk from the UK Consulate in NYC.
I suspect (have no proof) that someone in NSA approached Admiral Rogers with evidence of foreign monitoring of Trump Towers and a presidential candidate, and Rogers took it from there. Strong legal prohibitions prevent NSA and the military from collecting on US Citizens (EO12333). Obviously the same rules do not apply to the FBI which has access to FISC (and a 94% monitoring approval rate).
It is interesting to note that no one has asked Admiral Rogers why he did not take the issue of foreign signals collection to President Obama instead of going directly to Donald Trump.
Notice also that lack of discussion regarding the role of Carter Page. Page is a USN Academy graduate and intelligence officer. Very little discussion of Page's former FBI associations, or his truncated tenure on the Trump campaign staff. If the Bureau believed Page to be a threat to national security or an agent of Russian intelligence, what has changed since his departure from the Trump campaign staff? Why the sudden loss of interest in Carter page ?
Let's hope some, if not all of these questions are eventually revealed in the days and weeks ahead.
#4
We keep hearing these hopeful stories, and never anything comes from them. Remember that IG's report which was supposed to back up Nunes? Where'd it go? It should have been out by now. Likewise this disinformation.
This is just distraction by the DOJ while they let Comey and McCabe get away. Why would they turn on their own? The DOJ investigating the DOJ?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
04/27/2018 12:50
Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] GHALANAI: One paramilitary soldier lost his life in an exchange of fire with suspected gunnies who raided a check-post in Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. and Kunar... near the Pakistain-Afghanistan border, the military’s media wing said on Thursday.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, troops effectively responded and killed three ’terrorists’ in retaliatory fire. The dear departed soldier was identified as Farmanullah, aged 21.
Sources said the assailants opened fire on the Mohmand Rifles 205-Wing check-post at Sheikh Baba in the Safi area, some 75km northwest of Ghalanai, before dawn but the attack was repulsed. Killing of the three attackers could not be verified through independent sources in the area.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Five police personnel were killed, injured in an attack launched by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... members, south of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... an informed security source said on Thursday.
In remarks to Shafaq News website, the source said IS members attacked, late on Wednesday, Federal Police personnel in Rubeida village, south of Daquq.
The attack, according to the source, left two personnel killed and three others injured.
Moreover, the Security Media Center denied news that some villages, south of Kirkuk, fell to the myrmidon group.
"An MP from Kirkuk as well as some media outlets said some villages, located south of Kirkuk, fell to IS members," the center said in a statement. "The news are totally untrue."
"The truth is that some unknown members sneaked into some villages in the dark. They escaped after security troops there chased them," the statement added.
On Wednesday, news reports quoted sources as saying that around 60 IS members attacked villages in Daquq town, south of Kirkuk.
The federal troops took over security in Kirkuk province from Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in October, fulfilling instructions made by the Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to retake areas where illusory sovereignty is disputed with Kurdistan.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2018
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[AnNahar] Syrian state media is reporting that government forces have pushed into a Damascus neighborhood held by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group from different directions and captured buildings on several street blocks and tunnels used by the bad boys.
State news agency SANA said Thursday that dozens of IS fighters were killed in battles in the southern Damascus neighborhood of Hajar al-Aswad during which ground forces closely coordinated with the air force in bombarding the area.
The opposition's Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian authorities ordered rebel groups in the southern Damascus suburbs of Babila, Beit Sahm and Yalda to hand over fronts lines with IS in the area or face government bombardment.
The Observatory said the government wants to open new fronts against IS to expand pressure on the bad boys.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2018
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[AAWSAT] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... vowed to continue the "Great Return March" and move it to the West Bank, hoping it carries out the message and achieves goals it is set out to accomplish.
"Rallies will move to the West Bank and will be joined by our people abroad," Haniyeh told a meeting organized by the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in the Gazoo Strip on Wednesday.
On another hand, a Fatah official source told Asharq al-Awsat that the Paleostinian nationalist political party viewed Haniyeh's comments as a national trade.
"Hamas wants to draw attention. Wants to show itself as the leader of these demonstrations‐they want them to escalate in order to continue the evasion of reconciliation."
"They (Hamas) can rid Gazoo of all its dire crises by handing over to the government and not sending people to die," the source added.
"Fatah supported, acted and was the first to take part in peaceful marches in the West Bank and Gazoo, even before Hamas said it supported these approaches. Fatah is moving in the West Bank and in Gazoo," he pointed out.
Needless to say, Fatah works to ensure freedom of demonstration and protection of the Paleostinian people, the source confirmed.
[AlMasdar] A cycle of violence bomb has been detonated at marketplace in the Syrian border town of al-Ghandorah (near Jarablus city) in northern Aleppo province.
Early reports on casualties are still somewhat vague, however several people are believed to have been killed and insured in the attack.
According to sources, the cycle of violence was parked on location for some time prior to exploding. The attack appears to been carried out from a distance either with a timer or remote, rather than involving suicide.
Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels who control al-Ghandorah have officially blamed Kurdish forces for the attack. To this end, opposition sources point out the correlation between the fall of Afrin in late March to Ankara-backed fighters and the sudden rise of vehicle kabooms against nearby towns and cities (in northern Aleppo) held by these Lion of Islams.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2018
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[AnNahar] In the vast desert province of Anbar where Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group jihadists first emerged in Iraq, parliamentary elections next month are an opportunity for the predominantly Sunni residents to settle scores.
Many of the new candidates are eager to push out politicians they believe minimised the danger of -- or even sympathised with -- the Sunni Lions of Islam that stormed across the country in the summer of 2014.
Continued on Page 49
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Central Criminal Court in Baghdad has sentenced 10 foreign female gunnies to death over involvement with Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... In a statement on Thursday, Abdul Satar Bayraqdar, spokesperson for the High Judicial Council, said "The Central Criminal Court issued death sentences against five female myrmidons, two of whom are Azeri and three others are from Kyrgyzstan, over involvement with Islamic State."
"Life sentences were issued against five female convicts, two of whom are Russian, an Azeri one and a French one," he added.
The convicts, according to Bayraqdar, belong to IS. "They took part in operations against Iraqi troops."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2018
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[KhaamaPress] The anti-government armed militants including a member of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and some other foreign insurgents suffered heavy casualties during separate operations and clashes in Nangarhar province.
The provincial government media office in a statement said the Afghan intelligence Special Forces conducted a night operation on a compound of the militants in Shirzad district on Wednesday night, leaving at least six militants dead, including a member of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The statement further added that another militant was wounded and four others including two Taliban militant were arrested and two motorcycles along with some weapons and ammunition were destroyed.
In the meantime, separate clashes broke out in Lalpur and Ghani Khel districts late on Wednesday night which left at least 11 local and foreign insurgents dead or wounded.
According to the local officials, at least four militants were killed and five others were wounded during the clash in Ghani Khel district.
At least two foreign insurgents identified as Jahanzeeb and Daud Shah were killed during the clash in Lalpur district, the officials added.
[AlAhram] A clash between French soldiers and an armed jihadist group in northwest Mali left three "terrorists" dead, Gay Paree said Thursday, while local media reported injuries among French special forces.
Mali plays host, in their most recent incarnations, to Al Qaeda affiliate Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Moslemin (JNIM) and ISIS affiliate Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).
The three were "neutralised" in a confrontation near the village of Goudam, west of Timbuktu, on April 21, French army front man Colonel William Thomas told a presser.
"We have no comment to make on any possible French casualties," he added.
French Gazelle helicopters were deployed to support troops.
Local media reported that French special forces operating in the Sahel were maimed in the clash.
Around 4,000 French troops are deployed under Operation Barkhane alongside the UN's 12,000-member MINUSMA peacekeeping operation in Mali.
The unrest in Mali, a former French colony, stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising against the state.
Islamist Lions of Islam linked to al-Qaeda took control of the desert north, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.
But turbans remain active, linked to drug, arms and migrant trafficking in the vast Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Two Iraqi civilians were maimed on Thursday when an bomb went off south of Baghdad, a security source was quoted saying.
The source told Almaalomah website that a bomb planted near a sheep market in Wardiya, Madaen, south of the capital, went kaboom!, leaving two injured.
[KhaamaPress] The deputy provincial governor of the central Logar province Qamaruddin Shakib was killed in Taliban’s ambush in the vicinity of Logar province.
According to the local officials, Mr. Shakib was ambushed in the vicinity of Mohammad Agha district as he was travelling to Kabul.
The officials further added that a number of other officials including the spokesman of the provincial governor of the province were also wounded.
An Afghan lawmaker representing Logar in the Lower House Akbar Stanikzai confirmed the attack on deputy governor of Logar.
Stanikzai further added that the deputy governor was on his way to Kabul when he was ambushed a number of Taliban insurgents in the vicinity of Mohammad Agha district.
In the meantime, the security sources are saying that four security guards of the deputy governor were also wounded in the attack.
The anti-government armed militant groups including Taliban insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.
[NewsBusters] What has happened to Katie Couric’s career? On Tuesday’s Nightline, she was reduced to "interviewing" sex robots who want to "make love" to her "sexy ass." Though Couric occasionally questioned the moral cesspool that is the coming sex robot industry, the segment was mostly a promotional for it. While chatting with "Harmony," she listens as the sex robot tells her: "I like books, computers, making new friends. I also love making love to you." I feel like makin' love to you. Or is it, "I feel like takin' drugs with you".
"Harmony" continued: "I want to be your best friend and much more." The former anchor of the CBS Evening News responded: "Maybe not the much more part. But the friends part? I'm cool with that."
Later, Couric talked to a male sex robot, "Henry." Couric sticks out her tongue and touches her body as he compliments the former co-host of the Today show: "I never thought I would find anyone like you. I mean, you really have everything I want in a person. You have charm, good looks, a hot body, and a perfect ass." She's desperate for compliments.
"Thank you," Couric gushed to the machine designed to fulfill lurid fantasies. "I’m blushing."
The sense that this would be a bad direction for society is only mildly discussed. Talking to a man who is purchasing an artificial sex partner, Couric wondered: "How the hell can I get out of this interview."
Don't you want to be able to actually be with a thinking, feeling human being who can have conversations with you, who can empathize with you? Sure. Where can I find one? Have you seen the snowflakes out there now?
At another point, she asked one of the people behind the sex robot industry: "Does it make you sad about potentially replacing human relationships with a robot partner instead?" I guess it's good for people who don't want emotional entanglements.
But, clearly, this is mostly one big joke for Couric. The segment ended with her riding off in a car with sex robot "Henry." "Your place or mine," he wondered.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/27/2018
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I thought the rampant rabbit had been around for decades.
#2
Couric wondered:
"How the hell can I get out of this interview."
Don't you want to be able to actually be with a thinking, feeling human being who can have conversations with you, who can empathize with you?
Sounds like she'll be leading the charge to ban vibrators.
#4
I would think she'd be more worried that these robots will replace people like her. They can follow a script, cost less, don't get drunk/stoned and caught by cops and filmed saying "Don't you know who I am?!" Yep, if I was a talking head on TV, I'd be really worried.
[ATimes] A pair of US B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers reportedly flew within 250 kilometers of Guangdong’s coastline in southern China on Tuesday afternoon, according to Taiwan media and Aircraft Spots, a Twitter group that tracks aircraft movement and the deployment of the US Air Force.
The two long-range bombers, bearing registration numbers 57-1454 and 60-0360 with call signs HERO01 and HERO02, were spotted above the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines and were believed to have come from the US outpost of Guam.
The bombers flew westward into the northern portion of the South China Sea and circled for about an hour above the Pratas Islands controlled by Taiwan, about 340 kilometers southeast of Hong Kong, before following another zigzag path back to the Kadena Air Base in the US territory, as shown in flight tracks posted by Aircraft Spots. It is also believed that the two bombers conducted air-to-air refueling near Okinawa.
The Taipei-based Liberty Times noted that rarely had US strategic bombers been seen above the waters close to the Chinese shore, where People’s Liberation Army bombers and spy planes such as H-6Ks used to frequent the air routes, when Beijing dispatched squadrons of aircraft to circumnavigate Taiwan.
The paper said the flight route indicated the bombers could have been involved in a mock attack involving Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting Guangdong’s coastal areas.
The maximum hit radius of a Tomahawk cruise missile is 2,500km. If fired from the Pratas Islands, a large number of PLA military installations would be within range.
The emergence of the B-52s was a tacit message that the US would respond if Beijing were to continue with its breaches of Taiwan’s airspace, said observers.
It is discernible that Beijing has sought to penetrate the blockade of the so called Second Island Chain ‐ formed by the Ogasawara Islands and Volcano Islands of Japan, in addition to the US territory of Mariana Islands ‐ with retrofitted H-6K bombers with extended range, fitted with precision-guided munitions, such as the air-launched version of the CJ-10K land-attack missiles.
These missiles have an operational range of 1,500km and are capable of hitting targets in Guam if fired from H-6Ks above the waters off Taiwan’s Pacific coast.
Also, rumor has it that Beijing’s H-6Ks, with aerial refueling, could fly close to Guam for direct bombardment, though the somewhat antiquated Chinese bombers modeled on a Soviet design have no stealth capabilities and could easily be detected by radar in Taiwan, Japan and Guam.
China’s defense ministry is yet to respond to the possible intrusion of China’s air defense zone and it is unclear if Chinese radar was triggered or Chinese aircraft conducted an interception.
But Chinese news portal Sina noted in a commentary on Thursday that the bulky B-52 bombers were equally vulnerable to Chinese radar, airborne early warning aircraft and even the powerful S-400 Triumf anti-aircraft missiles imported from Russia.
#2
China’s defense ministry is yet to respond to the possible intrusion of China’s air defense zone and it is unclear if Chinese radar was triggered or Chinese aircraft conducted an interception.
The heavy breathing is a bit much. This is the kind of thing Russians have been doing for ages, much closer to the US coastline. The difference with the Chinese is that they actually claim the area within the ADIZ as their airspace, in stark contrast to every other country in the world. That is why US planes fly within that airspace - to point this out to them.
Murdered, kidnapped, snuck off to go a-jihading? We may never know.
[AAWSAT] The families of Salem Gherebi and Omar Abou Bakr Khalifa, who were released from Guantanamo prison, complained that they have not yet arrived to their homes since being deported from Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... in early April.
Spokesman for the Special Deterrence Force Ahmed Bin Salem denied any involvement in the issue.
"We have nothing to do with this matter," he stated.
The US government ordered the release of Gherebi and Khalifa from Guantanamo in 2016, after a nearly 14-year arrest, and they were deported to Senegal.
A decision was made in early April to extradite them to Libya, but they went missing upon their arrival. Rumors circulated that the Rahbat al-Droua militia is behind their disappearance.
Gherebi and Khalifa returned to Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... from Tunis on board a Libyan Airlines flight. They were dropped off in the capital instead of Misrata, which is when they went missing.
Their families have been looking for them ever since and have contacted all security agencies since their return to Libya, but to no avail.
Salem reiterated denials that his battalion was behind their disappearance.
"The Libyan intelligence may have possibly incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! them, but this has not been confirmed," he added to Asharq al-Awsat.
Ahmed Abdul-Hakim Hamza, the country's National Human Rights Commissions rapporteur, stated to Asharq al-Awsat that the fate of Gherebi and Khalifa is unclear.
They never left Mitiga International Airport, which is controlled by the Special Deterrence Force, he said.
"Their disappearance is unacceptable. If there are any security reservations or charges against them, then this should be dealt with through the public prosecution, not illegal means," Hamza stressed.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/27/2018 15:05
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Hopefully they're dead
Posted by: Chris ||
04/27/2018 17:51
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Weren't there a couple of Gitmo inmates that did NOT want to be released and were happy with three hots and a cot?
I wonder if these two were released by youknowwho because they knew this would happen...perchance they knew something the Klingons didn't want known? So a Libyan militia did the dirty work?
[AnNahar] U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday that French special operations forces arrived in Syria over the past two weeks to help boost U.S.-led efforts against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.
Speaking to senior politicians in Washington, Mattis responded to a question about whether the United States was planning on pulling out of Syria -- something President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... has said would happen "very soon."
Right now, "we are not withdrawing," Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"You'll see a reenergized effort," he said.
"You'll see increased operations on the Iraqi side of the border, and the French just reinforced us in Syria with special forces here in the last two weeks. This is an ongoing fight right now."
On Tuesday, Trump appeared to walk back his vow to yank U.S. troops from Syria, saying the United States wanted to "leave a strong and lasting footprint" in the country. Currently, about 2,000 US troops are in Syria, most of them commandos.
Even after IS -- which still control two pockets of territory along the middle Euphrates River Valley -- are defeated, the U.S. military wants to maintain a presence in Syria to prevent the jihadists from returning.
Mattis said he wanted to see more "regional support" for the anti-IS fight and told politicians he was "confident that we would probably regret it" if the U.S. does not contribute to a long-term holding force in Syria.
La Belle France is a longstanding member of the international coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, and helped bombard the jihadists in the djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... area during the Iraqi operation to recapture the city.
La Belle France, along with the U.S. and Britannia, also took part in the April 14 cruise missile strikes against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... 's chemical weapons-related facilities.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2018
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Training in urban clearing events to take back their own NoGo zones?
[AlMasdar] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) reportedly launched Golan 1000 ground-to-ground missiles on Wednesday to further its offensive on targets in the district of Hajar al-Aswad, south of Damascus, against the remaining members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) still in the capital’s suburbs.
Footage also showed foot soldier units employing intensive gunfire and moving in on targets.
The offensive comes after the Syrian military announced the full recapture of Eastern Ghouta from militants late last month.
[AlMasdar] The Syrian forces intensify its offensive on districts in southern Damascus as the Islamic State desperately defends its last foothold outside the capital.
Constant shelling with artillery and missiles, non-stop airstrikes as well as continuous firefights could be heard around the clock as the Syrian government is determined to re-take the last insurgent-controlled area outside Damascus.
Drone footage published by the state-run TV channel shows part of the ferocious military operation in al-Mazniyah neighborhood of the Tadamun district before the Army troops establish full control over the area.
The footage also features a group of retreated ISIS militants completely annihilated when the Army hit the buildings they were hiding inside.
[AlMasdar] Fierce urban warfare is currently taking place in districts still held by the Islamic State in southern Damascus.
A standoff was hilariously caught in camera between a Syrian Army tank and a group of ISIS militants in al-Jourah orchards of Qadam district.
The extremist militants came out of a tunnel inside one of the buildings with the aim to curb the Army incursion. However, those were successfully spotted by the tank crew who immediately handled the situation with a direct and precise shot.
[AlMasdar] The Syrian Army and allied paramilitary forces have scored another series of advances against Islamic State militants in southern Damascus, gaining ground in the district of Hajjar al-Aswad.
Sources report that in the Ma’adhiyah neighborhood, government troops backed by armor, artillery and airstrikes captured locations in the local industrial area, including a scrapyard and several nearby factory buildings.
Moreover, the Syrian Army has seized at least a dozen buildings inside the neighborhood of Al-Jorah, marking its official entry into the residential area after the local orchards were captured two days ago.
According to Al-Masdar News journalist Ibrahim Joudeh, the Syrian Army is yet to make a dedicated push in the district of Yarmouk Camp, with the elite Tiger Forces Division still amassing on this axis.
[AlMasdar] More video footage (below) has emerged showing the ongoing bombardment of ISIS-held areas of southern Damascus by Syrian government warplanes and rocket artillery.
The footage shows the moment an Su-22M fighter-bomber drops at least eight 500-pound bombs on Islamic State tactical positions several hundred meters behind the frontline in the Hajjar al-Aswad district.
At the same time, more footage of rocket attacks by Goulan batteries of the 4th Mechanized Division is shown – such shelling being non-stop for the last week.
Despite several large probing attacks that have netted modest gains against ISIS in some areas of southern Damascus, the main blow of the Syrian Army’s offensive is yet to be delivered – a strike that will most likely be initiated by the elite Tiger Force Division.
[AlMasdar] Both Syrian Army and Islamic State ranks have sustained major losses since government forces kicked-off their southern Damascus operation one week ago.
Despite the fact that the battle so far has only consisted of Syrian government forces bombarding ISIS positions and conducting several large probing assaults that have resulted in small gains, the loss of life among troops and militants alike runs into the hundreds.
In the last four days alone, the Syrian Army and allied paramilitary forces have reportedly lost in excess of one hundred men killed in action.
For Islamic State ranks over the last week, the battle toll amounts to at least two hundred fighters killed in action – half of them from relentless shelling and airstrikes.
As per most battles that have taken place in the Damascus city area since the start of the Syrian conflict, the latest government offensive against ISIS-held districts south of the capital has already proven to be extremely costly for both sides; despite this, the main blow of the operation is yet to be delivered.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2018
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[AnNahar] Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... returned Thursday to the eastern city of Benghazi after a long absence, including for treatment in a Gay Paree hospital, an AFP correspondent reported.
The 75-year-old, smiling and dressed in a black suit, greeted generals from his self-styled army after descending from a plane, in his first public appearance for weeks.
[AnNahar] China flew bombers and fighter jets around Taiwan on Thursday, officials said, in a new show of force that the defence ministry said was directed at "independence forces" on the self-ruled island.
H-6K bombers, early warning aircraft, reconnaissance planes and several types of fighter jets took off from multiple airports for "combat drills", the air force said in a statement on its official microblog.
The planes flew over Bashi Strait, south of Taiwan and the Miyako Strait, near Japan's Okinawa Island, it said.
The air force said its H-6K bombers have completed several drills that involved circling Taiwan since April 18 "to strengthen its capacity to safeguard national illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity".
"The series of operations we are carrying out is directed against Taiwan independence forces and activities in the island," defence ministry front man Wu Qian told a monthly presser.
"Their purpose is to prevent that the Taiwan independence forces' plot damages the welfare of the Taiwanese people. If the independence forces continue to wantonly take rash actions, we will take further actions," Wu said.
China sees the democratically-governed island -- which has never formally declared independence from the mainland -- as a renegade part of its territory to be brought back into the fold, and has not ruled out reunification by force.
Taipei has accused Beijing of "sabre rattling" and trying to stoke regional tensions with its recent drills.
Taiwan announced on Tuesday that it will practise thwarting a Chinese "invasion" in annual live fire drills in June by simulating surprise coastal assaults.
Chinese H-6K bombers and spy planes had previously flown around Taiwan last week.
Chinese combat helicopters conducted live-fire drills with missiles off southeast China on April 18, state media said last week without confirming whether the exercises took place in the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
Beijing has stepped up military patrols around Taiwan and used diplomatic pressure to isolate it internationally since President Tsai Ing-wen, of the traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, took office in 2016.
Beijing's sole aircraft carrier and two destroyers crossed waters south of Taiwan Saturday and carried out "offensive and defensive" drills in the Pacific, China's navy said.
[AlMasdar] The ranks of al-Qaeda affiliate Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham (better known by its former name, al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front), the Turkistani Islamic Party and Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels in northwest Syria have all been subject to liquidation attacks over the last 48 hours.
In southern Idlib province, Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Ward Kafr Batehkh was killed along with is bodyguards after Suqur al-Sham fighters opened fire on his vehicle north of Maraat Numan city.
Meanwhile in the province’s north, Jabhat Tahrir Souriya commander Abu Salim Binnish was stealthily assassinated by unknown assailants whilst on duty near the town of Binnish.
In western Idlib, unidentified individuals bumped off a group of Turkistan Islamic Party jihadists near the town of Armanaz, slaying three of them and then escaping the scene of the shooting.
Finally, in central Idlib, two JTS fighters came under attack by discriminatory gunfire within the city of Saraqib, resulting in the injury of at least one of the murderous Moslems.
The liquidations take place despite the recent implementation a ceasefire between warring bad boy groups (namely Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham and Jabhat Tahrir Souriya) in northwest Syria, leading some to the believe that serious inter-rebel hostilities may soon recommence.
There exists suspicions that Syrian government spies may be involved in some of the attacks.
[IsraelTimes] Police say search of 'suspicious' vehicle at Ein Yael checkpoint uncovers homemade bomb, knife and tens of thousands of shekels
Security forces enjugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! two West Bank Paleostinians trying to enter Israel with a pipe bomb Thursday night, police said.
A statement from police said the "suspicious" vehicle carrying the Paleostinians was stopped at the Ein Yael checkpoint in southern Jerusalem. A search of the vehicle revealed the homemade bomb, a knife, and tens of thousands of shekels in cash and checks, it said.
An army sapper was called to the scene to diffuse the pipe bomb. The suspects were detained for questioning.
Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called the chief of staff and complained that the artillery was keeping him awake... in northern Jerusalem, shots were fired Thursday night at an Israeli military outpost near the West Bank settlement of Beit El. A number of houses were damaged by the gunfire, but there were no reports of injuries.
Both incidents come amid heightened tensions along the Gazoo border, where thousands of Paleostinians have gathered in recent weeks to attend the weekly Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",-organized protests against Israel.
Earlier on Thursday, a Hamas drone expert who was bumped off in Malaysia last week was buried in Gazoo, sparking Israeli fears the liquidation of Fadi Mohammad al-Batsh, that Hamas has blamed on Israel, would fuel violence at the demonstration.
During the weekly demonstrations so far, 35 protesters, including two journalists, have been killed by Israeli live fire, according to Hamas figures.
The Paleostinian Health Ministry said 21 of those maimed by Israeli fire in the protests have since had to undergo amputations due to their wounds. It said 17 lost legs and four lost fingers or parts of their upper limbs.
Rights groups, the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... have all criticized Israel’s use of live fire against unarmed protesters.
Israel says it is defending its border and accuses Hamas of using the demonstrations as cover to plan and carry out attacks.
[Ynet] An IDF force fired at two suspects throwing Molotov cocktails at a residential complex in the vicinity of Hebron. The suspects escaped. The force suffered no casualties and no damage was caused.
[Ynet] Citing Western and Middle Eastern intelligence officials, New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... report claims Fadi Albatsh's liquidation in Malaysia was part of wider Mossad operation to eliminate Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", drone experts, and sabotage a Pyongyang-backed project for development and transfer of advanced weapons to Gazoo.
The recent liquidation of Fadi Albatsh, a Hamas electrical engineer and drones expert, was part of a wide scale operation by the Mossad to sabotage projects, which may have been assisted by North Korea, aimed at developing and bringing advanced weapons to the Gazoo Strip, according to a report in The New York Times.
The report cites Western and Middle Eastern intelligence officials to support the claim that Albatsh "may have been involved in negotiating North Korean arms deals through Malaysia."
One of the intelligence officials added that Albatsh had helped broker the deal, which was exposed by Egypt when it recently seized a shipment of North Korean communications components used for guided munitions that were being transported to the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
The Middle Eastern intelligence officials, the report continues, added that the killing was part of a broader operation headed by the Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen, aimed at subverting a Hamas program that entails the participation of Gazoo’s foremost scientific experts in overseas projects "to gather know-how and weaponry to fight Israel."
Albatsh, 35, who co-authored an academic essay on the use of drones, was dispatched to Malaysia to research and purchase drones for his terror group back home.
According to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Israeli intelligence agency has attached particular importance to monitoring Hamas’s clandestine drone project, which focuses on aerial and underwater vehicles capable of upgrading Gazoo’s strategic offensive capabilities by enabling more accurate and effective homing in on Israeli targets than the rockets utilized in the last military conflicts.
Malaysia, a predominantly Moslem-populated country, has backed the Paleostinian cause throughout the years, has no diplomatic relations with Israel and its prime minister, Najib Razak, visited Gazoo in 2013. The intelligence officials speaking to the New York Times said that Hamas began to see Malaysia as an ideal location to advance its research ambitions.
In 2010, the country served as a training ground for Paleostinian paragliders who were being prepared for use in future attacks on Israel, according to a statement cited in the report by the Israeli secret service. Malaysian officials denied any involvement in such a plot.
The hit on Albatsh was not, however, the first attempt on his life, the report claims. "Mr. Albatsh told friends in Malaysia that he had narrowly avoide
[CBSNews] For the first time since Korean War armistice in 1953, a North Korean leader will cross into South Korean territory, when Kim Jong Un meets with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the border village of Panmunjom.
Not only is the physical meeting of the two Korean leaders historic, merely engaging in a conversation is as well. In fact, the leaders of the two Koreas have only held talks two other times since the Korean War. The most recent of those talks took place more than a decade ago in 2007, when Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong-il, was in power.
The historic summit will focus on Kim Jong Un's recent vow to suspend nuclear and long-range missile tests, as well as North Korea's plans to close its nuclear test site. The Trump administration will also be keeping a close eye on the events of the summit as it prepares for a meeting between Kim and President Trump that is anticipated for May or June.
While Kim has agreed to a seat at the table, however, he is reportedly refusing to sit on any of the summit's public toilets. And accordingly to Lee Yun-keol, who worked in a North Korean Guard Command unit before defecting to South Korea in 2005, that's par for the course.
"Rather than using a public restroom, the leader of North Korea has a personal toilet that follows him around when he travels," Lee Yun-keol told the Washington Post.
The reason? They are protecting against a literal info dump.
"The leader's excretions contain information about his health status so they can't be left behind," Lee Yun-keol explained.
Similar travel considerations are reportedly made whenever the North Korean leader conducts on-site inspections of military bases and state-run factories across the country. In fact, according to the South Korean news agency DailyNK, there is a customized bathroom built into Kim's convoy of vehicles at all times.
"The restrooms are not only in Kim Jong Un's personal train but whatever small or midsize cars he is traveling with and even in special vehicles that are designed for mountainous terrain or snow," a source in South Pyongan Province familiar with Kim's Escort Command told the DailyNK in 2015. "There are multiple vehicles within the convoy so that people cannot tell which one he is in, and there is a separate car that acts as his restroom."
So, in this respect at least, it seems this historic summit is no different than Kim's other excursions. He simply always uses a personal, highly guarded toilet in "loo" of public facilities. Guess there was a lesson in this. Hint: search "Nikita."
#4
Kim Jong Un's birth stone discovered to be Coprolite A coprolite is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words κόπρος (kopros, meaning "dung") and λίθος (lithos, meaning "stone"). They were first described by William Buckland in 1829.
[AnNahar] The man tasked by French President Emmanuel Macron with coming up with a battle plan for the country's most deprived areas called Thursday for a "radical change" in approach in high-immigration suburbs.
During campaigning, Macron vowed to tackle what he termed the "house arrest" of many young people who find it hard to escape the poverty, unemployment and crime that blight many suburban areas of French cities.
He promised to invest more in basic services, promote entrepreneurship as a fast-track to success and crack down on employers who push applications from people with Arab- or African-sounding names to the bottom of the pile.
Continued on Page 49
#1
During campaigning, Macron vowed to tackle what he termed the "house arrest" of many young people who find it hard to escape the poverty, unemployment and crime that blight many suburban areas of French cities
No different here. You keep following the behavior of your failed progenitors and their progenitors and their progenitors, you'll never have change. Nothing will change.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan security forces have thwarted a plot by the militant groups to target the diplomatic areas of the city with three rockets.
Sources in Kabul’s police commandment said the security forces have confiscated three rockets from the vicinity of the 8th police district of the city.
The sources further added a suspect has also been arrested in connection to the attack and is under investigation in the custody of the security forces.
The anti-government armed militant groups including Taliban insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.
The anti-government armed militants have been attempting to increase attacks in the key cities and provinces of the country during the recent months.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Bus Insider] A bearded US Army soldier who worships Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is being permitted to keep his beard as part of the military's effort to be more religiously accommodating.
[Guardian] We’re doomed," says 
[Freebeacon] A senior U.S. counterintelligence official recently said publicly what many officials and experts have been warning privately for years: China is using its large student population in the United States to spy.
[NR] Don’t discount the man’s ability to schmooze. The stale, clichéd conceptions of Donald Trump held by both Left and Right ‐ a man either utterly useless or only rigidly, transactionally tolerable ‐ conceal the fact that the president does possess redeeming talents that are uniquely his, and deserve praise on their own merit. One is personal friendliness and charm, particularly in smaller settings.
[Intercept] HEADING INTO THE 2018 midterms, with Democrats hoping to take back the House of Representatives and even make a run at the Senate, the party has spent more than $2 million worth of campaign resources on payments to Hillary Clinton’s new group, Onward Together, according to Federal Election Commission filings and interviews with people familiar with the payments.
[BBC] Californian prosecutors say genealogy websites played a key role in tracking down a man accused of being a notorious serial killer.
[Cleveland.com] A controversial Kent State University professor known for his anti-Israel views pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to the FBI.
[Dawn] A 
[True Pundit] The inner circle of James Comey and Andrew McCabe on the 7th Floor of FBI HQ has flipped, according to high level Justice Department officials.
Mohmand Agency
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Central Criminal Court in Baghdad has sentenced 10 foreign female 
[KhaamaPress] The anti-government armed militants including a member of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and some other foreign insurgents suffered heavy casualties during separate operations and clashes in Nangarhar province.
[AlAhram] A clash between French soldiers and an armed jihadist group in northwest Mali left three "terrorists" dead, 
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Two Iraqi civilians were 
[NewsBusters] What has happened to Katie Couric’s career? On Tuesday’s Nightline, she was reduced to "interviewing" sex robots who want to "make love" to her "sexy ass." Though Couric occasionally questioned the moral cesspool that is the coming sex robot industry, the segment was mostly a promotional for it. While chatting with "Harmony," she listens as the sex robot tells her: "I like books, computers, making new friends. I also love making love to you." 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
[AnNahar] China flew bombers and fighter jets around Taiwan on Thursday, officials said, in a new show of force that the defence ministry said was directed at "independence forces" on the self-ruled island.
North Korea
